Cross-national consumer research using structural topic modelling: Consumers' approach-avoidance behaviours

This study introduces structural topic modelling (STM), a sophisticated unsupervised machine-learning algorithm for text analysis, to compare Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim consumers' approach-avoidance behaviours toward Korean beauty products using social media data. The STM results revealed 16 topics for each country, including new common themes belonging to K-beauty culture and wannabe Korean skin. Intriguing differences were also observed between these countries. Korea-related constructs, such as Korea's image and wannabe Korean skin, were approach factors for only Indonesians. Korean cosmetic brand-specific topics were extracted for only Malaysians and were significantly associated with their behavioural responses. Unsuitable Korean beauty products and domestic product preferences were avoidance factors for Indonesians, but new product risks and conflicts between Muslim and Korean cultures for Malaysians. We demonstrate that STM is a helpful tool in cross-national research for corroborating and extending the existing theoretical frameworks. The practical implications are also provided for global marketers.     

ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING APPROACHES TO COMPUTING INDEXES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

This paper compares the weighting schemes in the traditional, principal component and dynamic factor approaches to summarizing information from a number of component variables. To facilitate the comparison, we propose a framework to discuss the approaches with respect to their implied loadings in a latent variable model. We also propose a way to transform the dynamic factor index into an analogous index which is a weighted average of the components. The framework shows the strengths and weakness of the alternative weighting schemes and the sense in which the dynamic factor approach has the advantage of capturing both the significance and the variability of the components.     

Intrapreneurship model in the software industry

Quality & Quantity - The complexity of business dynamics demands that companies search for alternative ways to ensure their growth and survival. Thus intrapreneurship emerges as an ad-hoc...     

De-internationalization through the lens of intellectual property rights

Many studies have focused on internationalization, with few shedding light on de-internationalization. In this article, we contended that de-internationalization is common in a world of matured globalization, yet it remains underexplored. We sought to build on the seminal articles on de-internationalization by extending our understanding of the concept from a voluntary to an involuntary perspective. In particular, we used intellectual property rights as an institutional coercive dimension and set theory as a discerning mechanism to enrich our understanding of de-internationalization. Our article, which demonstrates the multi-faceted conditions of de-internationalization, should benefit formal institutions and policy makers in developing a greater understanding of the relationship between public policies and focal firms' decisions to de-internationalize. We also hope that our article will contribute to greater visibility of de-internationalization and make the concept more approachable to our international business audience.     

Promoting cost efficiency and uniformity in parcel delivery centre locations and service areas: a GIS-based analysis

This paper provides a systematic framework to determine local delivery centre (LDC) locations and service areas to reduce delivery costs and balance the allocation of parcel delivery loads to promote sustainable LDC development. Based on a case study of a parcel distribution company in Korea, this study proposes two strategies for LDC service area delineation within each terminal service boundary that either minimises the total delivery time or balances the allocation of delivery loads. This research contributes to improving cost efficiency and balancing delivery load allocations in planning LDC locations and service areas that can potentially promote the long-term mutual sustainable development of parcel distribution companies and their local delivery counterparts.     

Authority and communication in the laboratory

We report findings from experiments on two delegation–communication games. An uninformed principal chooses whether to fully delegate her decision-making authority to an informed agent or to retain the authority and communicate with the agent via cheap talk to obtain decision-relevant information. In the game in which the delegation outcome is payoff-dominated by both the truthful and the babbling communication outcomes, we find that principal-subjects almost always retain their authority and agent-subjects communicate truthfully. Significantly more choices of delegation than of communication are observed in another game in which the delegation outcome payoff-dominates the unique babbling communication outcome; yet there is a non-negligible fraction of principal-subjects who holds on to their authority and agent-subjects who transmits some information. A level-k analysis of the game indicates that a principal-subject “under-delegates” due to the belief that her less-than-fully-strategic opponent will provide information; such belief is in turn consistent with the actual play.     

Asset pricing and energy consumption risk

This paper proposes energy consumption in the US as a new measure for the consumption capital asset pricing model. We find that (i) industrial energy growth produces reasonable values for the relative risk aversion coefficient and the implied risk-free rate; (ii) compared to alternative consumption measures, industrial energy performs well in explaining the cross-sectional variation in stock returns with the lowest implied risk aversion and pricing errors; (iii) the industrial energy consumption risk model performs equally well as the Fama–French three-factor model in the cross-sectional asset pricing tests; and (iv) total energy consumption risk is priced in the presence of the Fama–French factor risks.